AI reshapes the technology investment cycle! The latest judgment from foreign institutions is here

Artificial intelligence is becoming a core variable driving a new investment cycle in the global technology industry.

Multiple foreign institutions predict that driven by the continuous explosion of AI demand, by 2026, the semiconductor and technology industries will enter a phase of multiple overlapping super cycles, with key links such as storage, capital expenditure, and computing infrastructure experiencing synchronized improvements in prosperity. At the same time, the logic of industry operation will shift from linear growth to a coexistence of structural differentiation and rhythmic evolution.

In this process, AI investment is transmitting from infrastructure to the entire industrial chain, boosting corporate confidence and pushing the global economy into a new round of investment cycle. Institutions generally believe that AI-driven industrial opportunities will show significant layering and rotation characteristics, allowing investors to grasp changes in storage, computing power, and application rhythms, and distinguish between long-term trends and short-term fluctuations, which is expected to yield more sustainable excess returns in the new technology cycle.

AI-Driven Multiple Cycle Resonance

Multiple foreign institutions predict that in 2026, artificial intelligence will still serve as a core variable, driving the global technology and semiconductor industries into a phase of overlapping multiple cycles, reshaping the main line of the new investment.

Allianz Fund points out that artificial intelligence is no longer just a technological trend; it is the core force currently driving the reconstruction of the entire semiconductor and technology ecosystem and profoundly changing the investment landscape of the technology industry.

Specifically, the current series of transformations in the semiconductor and artificial intelligence ecosystem indicate that the market pattern is no longer dominated by linear growth but exhibits characteristics of multiple overlapping super cycles, highlighting structural bottlenecks, and rapidly evolving corporate implementation rhythms. For investors, these trends are creating structural opportunities, with some niche sectors expected to continue achieving excess growth in 2026 and beyond.

Allianz Fund believes that to successfully respond to market fluctuations, valuation differentiation, and fundamental changes, proactive management strategies are crucial. In 2026, those who can distinguish between long-term structural driving factors and short-term market sentiment, and allocate their investment portfolios to the next round of industrial transformation driven by artificial intelligence, are likely to achieve significant excess returns.

At the same time, Fidelity International’s analyst survey in 2026 shows that corporate confidence is rebounding to its most optimistic level since 2020, driven by a new wave of AI investment enthusiasm. Analysts generally believe that the global economy is currently undergoing one of the largest investment cycles in recent years, with the core driving force stemming from continuous investments in AI and related infrastructure. Although Fidelity analysts are still intensely discussing the sustainability of this AI investment wave and the long-term profitability, they generally believe that concerns about technology sector valuations disconnecting from fundamentals are gradually easing.

Fidelity International analyst and fund manager Terence Tsai stated that high levels of investment will benefit the entire artificial intelligence value chain. As hyperscalers raise capital expenditures above market expectations, related investments will flow to various layers of the benefiting value chain, including AI infrastructure providers and their upstream suppliers, with the market currently not fully reflecting the strong growth potential within.

Storage and Computing Power Resonance, Application Side Relay Becomes New Main Line

Against this backdrop, institutions have provided a clearer breakdown of the evolution path of the internal structure of the AI industry, overall showing characteristics of “infrastructure leading, application gradually relaying.”

Allianz Fund points out that the most decisive directions in 2026 include the continuation of the storage super cycle, semiconductor capital expenditure entering a comprehensive super cycle, persistent tight electricity demand in data centers, accelerated implementation of enterprise-level artificial intelligence, and a rebound in the analog chip industry.

Specifically, the semiconductor industry is entering a phase of multiple overlapping super cycles, and the core driving force behind all this is the unprecedented growth of artificial intelligence. Allianz Fund states that the key to this transformation is the storage super cycle, with industry bottlenecks shifting from computation speed to storage bandwidth. Parallel to the storage super cycle is the semiconductor capital expenditure super cycle. The explosion of AI demand, changes in geopolitical patterns, and the advancement of global capacity regionalization are driving the expansion of this round of capital expenditure.

On this basis, Manulife Fund points out from the rhythm differences between computing power and applications that the AI computing power sector will still be in a steady climbing phase in 2026, with a stable development rhythm and continuously improving performance realization capabilities; while the AI application sector is currently still in a technology trigger phase, with the industry still exploring the matching paths between core technologies and application scenarios.

(Source: Securities China)